gibson147

Yes, I reckon this is what happened when I renewed the contract I must have missed his request to play in his preferred role - which is my own fault but at least I know now.

Makes sense and would be something I will do when recruiting new players. The player I'm about to have an issue with was already at the club and whilst I did renew his contract I don't remember anything about having a preferred role, maybe I missed that...

I'm actually quite enjoying playing the game, I decided to give FM23 a miss as I wanted a break from the game and football in general wasn't much fun last season (my avatar will explain why). So I was ready for a return this year and whilst certain things are grinding my gears, mostly around player happiness and, in my opinion, ridiculous demands and extreme reactions etc. I'm feeling quite positive about the rest of it. Matches are in the main enjoyable, look better than FM22 did and whilst I agree that scoring goals is too easy I don't think that makes it unplayable, I just accept it for what it is in the world of FM and wait for it to be tweaked. Would be different of course if the AI wasn't producing similar scorelines as well but it does seem to be a general trend. Also agree it does appear to be a combination of an increase in clear cut chances and poor defending, which then also contributes to the number of chances hitting the woodwork (I had six in one match but was winning easily so it was more amusing than anything else) to reduce the amount of goals as the defence has parted like the Red Sea again. I usually wait until the December update every release before doing a serious long term save anyway for the data update but I can still have some fun with it now. Fix the above and also give the manager some more sensible options to respond to players with and then I will be extremely pleased with this edition.

I have mentioned this on another thread, the responses for you as a manager just aren't good enough if player happiness is this volatile. To the point above just having an option of something like 'I would love to give you more money but the club just doesn't have it' rather than just confrontational responses would help. Then dependent on the loyalty, professionalism of the player would dictate their responses - some might still be annoyed and want to leave whilst others should understand and knuckle down. Right now it seems you either have an option to cave in to their demands (which is in this scenario isn't an option at all) or go nuclear and upset half the team. Whilst I fully understand that AI and interactions are not easy to implement sometimes the obvious answer just isn't there and that is just very frustrating.

It is looking like I'm about to have an issue with one of my players who is a team leader in the squad hierarchy. 'Feels time is running out to start playing in his preferred position and role' - so firstly I don't remember making any promises that committed to this. Secondly he is playing in his preferred position, centre-back, but his preferred role is wide centre back. Now my team plays with a back four so as I understand it the wide centre back role only works with a back 3 and I'm not about to change the whole formation to keep him happy. So whilst maybe not playing in his preferred role is a legitimate gripe, although I would question this in terms of something so specific as a wide centre back, my concern is when he finally complains about this and depending on what options I have to respond to him, to basically say get on with it, and then he kicks off and then I have a dressing room revolt over how I've treated such a respected member of the squad. Instances so far have tended to be either about playing time, which doesn't tend to escalate beyond the player himself, to wanting an improved contract usually to a ridiculous increase and these do then generally escalate quite quickly to the rest of the dressing room and a showdown with the more respected members of the squad pleading his case. Which again I don't think is very realistic but I could be wrong and fair enough, but what is frustrating is the responses offered - a simple 'he wants too much money' or 'I offered him a contract and he turned it down' aren't an option. It is either a complete backdown and you say OK I was wrong he can have what he wants or you basically are telling them to p*** off and upsetting everyone. Incidentally I imagine if this happened in real life they would be told to p*** off... There is one response which is wait until the end of the season and we will discuss then, which occasionally works, but also can leave the player insulted or offended and usually the response from the squad is we think he should get a new contract now. All well and good but again not very realistic in my opinion, particularly if we are near the end of the season anyway... So if player unhappiness is going to be this volatile the options for responding need to be looked at and improved. Incidentally on the wide centre back role there seems to be a lot of centre backs in the game with this has their best role, so if recruiting for a centre back to play in a back 4 should I avoid these in case 6 months down the line he starts moaning?